System Preferences won't save after change

Question

Level 1

8 points

System Preferences won't save after change

Hello everyone,

I am running Mac OS 10.5.8 on a Black Macbook. The problem I am having is that none my changes will save in the system preferences. For example. I change the desktop background but the background won't change. The display window in the systems preferences window will show the picture I chose, but the desktop won't.

Another example: if I turn off "spaces" in systems preferences. It will show as off in the system preferences window, but as soon as I close the system preferences window, the changes won't take affect. This seems to happen with any change to settings in the system preferences.

I have recently used both "disk warrior" and Onyx to rebuild my desktop, check my drive and everything else those applications do. But still no change.

One more hint: I deleted an application (TomTom home) from my computer a few months ago, but the old icon shows up in the Dock as a "?" after each restart. I can drag it ot the desktop and delete it, but if I restart it will always show up.

What could be wrong? Should I do a reinstall? I don't have the disks...

Thanks Mac folks!

iMac 20" 1.25 Ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.1), MacBook Core Duo (black) Mac Mini 1.42Ghz

Posted on Aug 8, 2010 7:05 AM

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Answer 1

planb77

Level 7

32,446 points

Aug 8, 2010 10:07 AM in response to RoverJosh

Hello RoverJosh,
And welcome to  Discussions!

Try deleting your *System Preferences* preference file located at:
/Users/[YourUserName]/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systempreferences.plist

Then reboot your machine. Any luck there? Have you tried repairing permissions on your drive? Since you no longer have your install discs, you can use something like [AppleJack|http://applejack.sourceforge.net> to do this for you. Worth a shot right?

Not entirely sure about the TomTom home thing though? We'll come back to it if we need to.

B-rock

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Answer 2

RoverJosh Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 10, 2010 8:22 PM in response to planb77

Thanks Planb77,

I tried deleting my Preferences and still no change. I am going to try running my disk utilities now and see what happens.

Thanks for posting. I will let you know.

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Answer 3

patte

Level 1

10 points

Aug 18, 2010 9:14 AM in response to RoverJosh

There's a simple fix that could/will help - it did the trick for my girlfriends account on my Macbook.

- insert your SL install cd and boot from it (» restart you Mac and hold down "C")
- choose your language and select Utilities from the menu bar
- choose "Reset Password"
- at the bottom of the screen you see "reset permissions on your home directory" » that's what you want to do.

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Answer 4

RoverJosh Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 18, 2010 8:18 PM in response to patte

Patte,

I will try that tomorrow. Thanks for the tip.

Josh

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Answer 5

RoverJosh Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 4, 2010 8:39 PM in response to RoverJosh

Ok, I tried both removing the "com.apple.systempreference.plist" and restarting from both a Disk Warrior disk, and the Mac OS X Install CD 1 and doing a repair of the disk permissions. Neither of the tricks worked.

I no longer have a "com.apple.systempreference.plist" file anywhere on my computer and I still have the same problems.

So what should I do now? I have (obviously) found my original disks. I am thinking I need to do a new install of the system software? What is the process for doing that and not lose my data?

Thanks again for everybodies help.

Josh

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